SERM.
XVII.

SERMON XVII.

On FRIENDSHIP.

PROVERBS XXVii, 10,

Thine own friend, and thy father's friend, forfake not.

W

WH

HATEVER relates to the behaviour of men in their social character, is of great importance in religion. The duties which spring from that character, form many branches of the great law of charity, which is the favourite precept of chriftianity. They, therefore, who would separate such duties from a religious fpirit, or who at most treat them as only the inferior parts

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of it, do real injury to religion. They SERM. are mistaken friends of piety, who, under the notion of exalting it, place it in a fort of infulated corner, disjoined from the ordinary affairs of the world, and the connections of men with one another. On the contrary, true piety influences them all. It acts as a vivifying fpirit, which animates and enlivens, which rectifies and conducts them. It. is no lefs friendly to men than zealous for the honour of God; and by the generous affections which it nourishes, and the beneficent influence which it exerts on the whole of conduct, is fully vindicated from every reproach which the infidel would throw upon it.-In this. view, I am now to discourse on the nature and duties of virtuous friendship, as. closely connected with the true spirit of religion. It is a fubject which the infpired philofopher who is the author of this book of Proverbs, has thought worthy of his repeated notice; and in many paffages has bestowed the highest elogiums on friendship among good men. As

ointment

SERM. ointment and perfume rejoice the heart, fo XVII. doth the Sweetness of a man's friend by

hearty counfel. As iron sharpeneth iron, fo a man Sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. Make fure of thy friend; for faithful are the wounds of a friend. A friend loveth at all times; and a brother is born for adverfity. There is a friend that fticketh clofer than a brother.-Thine own friend, and thy father's friend, it is said in the text, forfake not.

I MUST begin the fubject, by obferving, that there are among mankind friendships of different kinds, or, at least, connexions which affume that name. When they are no more than confederacies of bad men, they ought to be called confpiracies, rather than friendships. Some bond of common interest, fome league against the innocent and unfufpecting, may have united them for a time. But they are held together only by a rope of fand. At bottom they are all rivals, and hoftile to one another. Their friendship can fubfift no longer

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than intereft cements them. Every one SERM. looks with a jealous eye on his fuppofed friend; and watches the first favourable opportunity to defert, or to betray.

Friendships too there are of a different kind, and of a more respectable nature, formed by the connection of political parties. It is not, perhaps, on felfish or crooked designs that such friendships are originally founded. Men have been affociated together by some public intereft, or general caufe, or for defence against some real or imagined danger; and connexions thus formed, often draw men into close union, and infpire for a season no small degree of cordial attachment. When upon juft and honourable principles this union is founded, it has proved on various occasions, favourable to the cause of liberty and good order among mankind. At the fame time, nothing is more ready to be abused than the name of public fpirit, and a public cause. It is a name, under which private interest is often sheltered, and felfish defigns are carried on. The un

wary

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SERM. wary are allured by a fpecious appearance; and the heat of faction ufurps the place of the generous warmth of friendship.

It is not of such friendships, whether of the laudable or the fufpicious kind, that I am now to difcourfe; but of private friendships, which grow neither out of interested designs, nor party zeal; but which flow from that fimilarity of difpofitions, that correfponding harmony of minds, which endears fome person to our heart, and makes us take as much part in his circumftances, fortunes, and fate, as if they were our own. The foul of Jonathan was knit with the foul of David; and Jonathan loved him as his own foul*. Such friendships certainly are not unreal; and for the honour of human nature, it is to be hoped are not altogether unfrequent among mankind.-Happy it is, when they take root in our early years; and are engrafted on the ingenuous fenfibility of youth. Friendships then contracted,

* Samuel xviii. I.

retain